Şehzade Ahmet

Şehzade Ahmet (1465-1512) was a Prince (Şehzade) of the Ottoman Empire during the 1511 Interregnum crisis. During the interregnum he fought against his brother Selim, and his nephew Prince Suleiman the Magnificent, and was killed by Selim in 1512.

Biography
By the time he was a young man, Prince Ahmet was already the presumed heir to the Ottoman Empire, having been chosen by his own father Bayezid II to assume the throne. To many this made perfect sense: Ahmet was a grateful and loyal son who shared his father's distaste for war and his affection for esoteric knowledge.

But to others - those who viewed Ahmet's traits as weakness - he was a sad symbol of the dwindling power of the Sultanate. And as such, he appeared to many Ottoman officials to be incapable of adapting himself to the requirements of the throne.

The Sultan's own Janissaries were quite vocal about their dislike for the would-be Sultan and openly questioned his fitness as a leader. Would he protect the Empire, as was his duty? Would he wage war against the Mamelukes to the south and Safavids to the East? Would he expand the boundaries of the Empire as God had decreed? The Janissaries wanted positive answers to these pressing questions, and had no faith that Ahmet would provide a satisfying answer.

At some point around 1510, Ahmet's youngest brother Selim - with the silent support of the Janissaries - made an overt bid for the throne, marching a small army towards Constantinople, expecting to meet little resistance. To Ahmet's great relief, his father Bayezid stepped in to stop Selim's advance. But the old Sultan was sickly and - as many people thought - incapable of sustaining an internecine war as mad and tragic as this one was shaping up to be.

In 1511 Ahmet began his plot to take the throne for himself by ordering some mercenaries to assassinate or kidnap Prince Suleiman the Magnificent, who was the son of Selim and a child prodigy. These soldiers were killed at the Prince's banquet at Topkapi Palace by members of the Assassins Guild of the city, who needed Suleiman to survive in order for him to help them hunt down Ahmet and his Templar Order allies, who included Byzantine merchant Manuel Palaiologos and general Shahkulu. By March 1512 all of his allies had died, but he managed to obtain the keys to the city of Masyaf from Assassin Ezio Auditore da Firenze in exchange for his love Sofia Sartor's release from captivity. But Ezio pursued Ahmet as he tried to flee in a carriage, and eventually their carriage veered off a cliff and they landed on the ground next to each other.

Death
Ahmet confronted Ezio on the ground, but they were interrupted by the sight of Selim's army marching to Constantinople. Ahmet told the Janissaries that they were supposed to fight for the sultan, and Selim said that he was the sultan, and began to strangle Ahmet. Ahmet told him to stop, and Selim threw him off the cliff to his death.